The National Football League is at it again.
If we’re not talking about referees throwing games, or dangerously missed penalties, we’re talking about…a social media app?
In the wake of TikTok’s practically 12-hour ban, over 170 million Americans attempted to flock to other apps to make up for the community they felt with the ByteDance app.
Some went to RedNote, an actual Chinese app. Others went to a Twitter spin-off called Bluesky.
All except for the NFL and its teams, of course.
On Wednesday in an interview with Awful Announcing, Patriots’ Fred Kirsch, VP of content for Kraft Sports and Entertainment held a Q&A. One fan asked if the team could have an account on Bluesky, to which Kirsch replied:
“Well, right now we’re not allowed to. We had an account briefly on Bluesky but the league asked us to take it down because it’s not an approved social media platform for the NFL yet.”
According to Steve Keeley with Awful Announcing, “The NFL told Front Office Sports in November that it was “aware of Bluesky but currently does not have an official presence on the platform.” It perhaps made sense given that the X alternative was still relatively small (compared to other platforms) and there were a lot of unknowns about its long-term success following a post-election bump.”
“The NFL and X had also just announced they were partnering to create a centralized portal for the league on that platform.”
The NFL has not explained why there isn’t an approval for a Bluesky account, but is that really surprising?
The National Football League is like your annoying little cousin who keeps making up rules as you play a game so they can try to win.
According to SBNation, “The NFL did sign an extension of their agreement with Twitter/X in 2024 to be an exclusive social media partner for streaming games, highlights, and original content — but nowhere in that agreement did it indicate teams would not be allowed to have accounts on other networks.”
First & Jenn 
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